Tribute to our late PJR champion Tui O'Sullivan (Te Rarawa)

One of the founding Pacific Media Centre advisory board members and a strong core member of the Pacific Journalism Review support team, Tui Rererangi Walsh O'Sullivan (Te Rarawa), from Pukepoto, died recently aged 82.

She was also an enthusiastic supporter of the establishment of Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).

Tui was the first Māori academic at Auckland University of Technology (then ATI), contributed to the university for more than 40 years, set up the first Women on Campus group, helped establish the newspaper Password to introduce new English speakers to Aotearoa society and culture, and was one of the key people who set up AUT's marae in 1997.

Writes her political scientist son, Professor Dominic O'Sullivan, in her obituary being published by PJR next month: "She taught courses on the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi when the treaty was a subversive idea. She contributed to change on social and political thought that has brought the treaty -- that her tupuna signed -- to greater public influence."

Tui, thank you so much for enriching our world and being such a staunch friend of PJR. Okioki i roto i te aroha me te rangimarie wahine ataahua.

* Tui Rererangi Walsh O'Sullivan, the 'flying bird in the sky'

Caption: Tui O'Sullivan (second from right) at the 20th birthday celebration of PJR at AUT in 2014.